The Rights Of Man By Thomas Paine: An Analysis

In Thomas Paine’s book The Rights of Man, the author uses freedom, or liberty, as a main topic throughout the work. The words freedom and liberty are used interchangeably, even though the two have slightly different definitions. The Oxford English Dictionary defines liberty as “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views” (OED, n.d.). In actuality, the meaning of the word is far more complex. Though this definition of liberty very well may satisfy some, the word will have a much greater meaning to people who have overcome hardships throughout life. Paine goes into great detail as he contrasts the post-revolutionary governments of France and the United States with the English government, which had not undergone a revolution. He argues in …show more content…
The basic definition of liberty is one that all of mankind can agree on, but a basic definition can only indicate one’s thoughts to a certain extent. To an ordinary, middle class member of today’s Western society, liberty typically means no more than the dictionary definition. People of this background have, for the most part, experienced no real trauma or life altering event that is out of the ordinary. These are the people who have always lived in a world where things could always be worse, even if said people tend to think otherwise. Most dilemmas that this group will run into are what the social media world refers to as First World Problems. Liberty to this kind of person is nothing more than his individual rights which are taken for granted more times than not. For the people of France around the time of the revolution, however, freedom was worth much more than one during our time could ever